The exciting extra-inning matchup that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a combined over 50 million viewers across the United States, Canada, and Japan markets. Major League Baseball announced this marks the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 edition showdown between the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Broadcast Viewership Breakdown
The Saturday epic game drew over 27 million viewers on Fox networks, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It additionally is the most-watched World Series matchup after the 2017 edition final game involving the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This represents a 16% increase compared to the last finale between the Nationals and Houston Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked seventh, the fifth game came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in thirteenth position.
International Viewership Figures
In the Canadian market, the game averaged 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English-language broadcast in Canada after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final contest started at 9 p.m. local time, it averaged 12M. This followed the previous Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yamamoto allowed one run in six frames – averaged 13.1M spectators, making it the highest-rated World Series game on a sole broadcaster in the country.
Overall Averages and Trends
The entire seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees matchup. This marks the initial instance after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen audience increases for two consecutive seasons.
Counting the Game 1 broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership was over 16 million. The total World Series average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox and its sister channels averaged over 8 million watchers, an eight percent increase over the previous year and Fox’s strongest postseason ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB stated that the World Series was broadcast in over 200 nations and regions by 44 media partners in 16 different languages.
